John Crerar

John Crerar, (born March 8, 1827, New York City—died Oct. 19, 1889, Chicago), U.S. railway industrialist and philanthropist who endowed (1889) what later became the John Crerar Library of science, technology, and medicine.

Crerar moved in 1862 to Chicago, where he directed a railway equipment manufacturing plant. A member of the Pullman Palace Car Company when it was incorporated in 1867, he was also a bank and railroad director.

While Crerar’s library bequest did not provide for a purely science library, he expressly wished that certain novels and other works that he felt undermined morals be excluded. The library, now affiliated ... (100 of 157 words)